World champions Red Bull have changed their pit stop procedure after a loose rear wheel came off Mark Webber’s car in the pit lane during last Sunday’s German Grand Prix and injured an FOM television cameraman.

Paul Allen suffered broken ribs, a broken collarbone and concussion but is expected to make a full recovery. Following the incident at the Nurburgring, Red Bull carried out an investigation.

The report, which was sent to governing body the FIA and the 10 other teams on the grid, revealed that Webber’s car was released prematurely because a “go” signal was sent accidentally by the right rear wheel man.

The right rear nut cross-threaded as the wheel went on. When the mechanic removed the nut to put another on, his wheel gun slipped in his hand and accidentally depressed a trigger that sent the “go” signal to the man on the front jack.

As a result, the car was cleared to leave the pits even though the rear wheel was not attached. The team said they would revise the wheel gun’s design to ensure the “go” signal could not be sent by accident.

The front jack man will also be instructed to hold the car in the event of any problem and only release it when given a signal that all wheels have been fitted and fastened in place. Red Bull’s pit stop current system has been in place for more than a year.

Red Bull’s procedural changes follow the FIA’s clampdown on the people who are allowed in the pit lane during a race weekend.

A ban has been put on anyone other than marshals and team personnel being allowed in the pit lane during qualifying session and the race.

And on Thursday, the BBC reported that rights holder FOM has told broadcasters that their personnel, including pit lane reporters and camera crews, will not be allowed in the pit lane during any session on “safety” grounds. Written journalists and photographers will still be permitted.

At the great Bathurst 1000 race (where I believe the in-car camera was invented) for V8Supercars in Australia, they’ve been using a camera on a wire for many years that flies the entire length of the pit lane. The question is: Is F1 Fan-Based enough to allow such a thing.

FIA is run by Dinosaurs… they are stuck in the 50s and unable to change their ways.
A good example is what you are saying, cameras in a cable car, another one is to get rid of the air guns and air hoses, can’t they use battery power tools like a modern human does?.

Pneumatic wheel guns simply have much better performance both in terms of speed and power, they are not dated. For the same amount of torque they produce, an electric wheel gun would have to have a massive motor and battery which would be extremely unwieldy.

V8′s is the biggest prima-donna sport there is, its a spec driven formula just the same as NASCAR, its been to the detriment to motorsport in this country ( Aus ), since its inception, and the greedy little people who run it, just the same as F1.

The same as F1, track owners are left scratching around for a living due to insane licensing fees, trackside facilities still reside in the 80′s, at best, and the same as F1, its now taking government funds to stage events.

F1 already uses cameras on wires in places I think. That said, a camera on a wire going up and down pit lane isn’t going to be able to grab the same kind of shot as a bloke who’s right down next to the cars. It’s no different in V8SCs. They might run cameras on wires and whatever else, but they’ve also got camera folk and Larko running up and down pit lane and in and out of garages, seemingly with more freedom than their F1 counterparts have (or, ’til recently had). And on occasion, guys with cameras get run over.

Then again, V8SCs isn’t exactly the pinnacle of regulatory excellence.

Funny enough, I also heard that, in addition to the spokespersons announcement, Horner gave these instructions below to the RBR crew earlier today:

First shalt thou take out the Holy Wheel Gun.
Then shalt thou count to four, no more, no less. Four shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be four. Five shalt thou not count, neither count thou three, excepting that thou then proceed to four. Five is right out. Once the number four, being the fourth number, be reached, then signal thou thy Holy Hand of completion towards thy jack man, who, being ready in my sight, shall remove the jack.

I know that in recent years RBR have been more and more paranoid of rivals and god forbid F1 fans looking closely at their cars. And blocked the views of photographers and TV crews. Even so was it really necessary to fire a wheel from one of their cars towards a camera man??? On a positive note does this mean that we won’t be hearing so much from Ted Kravitz during the races if he can’t access the pit lane?

The paragraph above is not meant to be taken too seriously and I wish Mr Allen a speedy recovery.

It’s only since his move to sky that he’s annoyed me so. Perhaps it’s more to do with the sky coverage in general? I’ve yet to work out Ant Davidsons value to their coverage. Also do they really need both Hill and Herbert? Crofty needs to calm down!!
Saying that the bbc coverage isn’t perfect either. Although I like DC I still think he’s too close to RBR for my liking. Will never be a fan of theirs! Can you tell? Lol

Me too, it’s the only thing that Sky need to address, they need a Gary Anderson type with hands on F1 engineering experience who really know the technical side at a far deeper level than anyone who hasn’t done the job can’t quite grasp.

‘The front jack man will also be instructed to hold the car in the event of any problem and only release it when given a signal that all wheels have been fitted and fastened in place’

This is just stupid bunch of words no matter who wrote them. I think it is logical and obvious. I think no front-jack man in world want to release the car without all tyres fitter OK. No? Also, what does this text is supposed to mean? I’m sure that front jack man wouln’t release the car in case he did know that the incident is about to happen.

No matter how good the peripheral capacity to see has the front jack man ,is impossible for him to check four spots in 3 seconds, for that reason they make it automatic.And if he has to check incoming cars I wonder no more accidents have happened.

Obviously, as fans we enjoy the insight and access that we get from people like Ted Kravitz, so it’s a shame we might lose some of this.

Maybe this has been comeing for a while though. Brundle has said on more than one occasion recently that the grid gets more crowded with each race.

A couple of roving pit reporters back in the day may have been easily accomodated, but multiply that by RTL, SkyF1, SkyF1 Italy, Sky F1 Germany, BBC, Sky Sports News, Speed, ESPN … you get the picture, it makes for a very crowded pit lane.

At some point enough is enough. But it would be a shame to completely lose this aspect of the TV coverage

Even though it wasn’t Webber’s fault, the mistake by the team definitely warranted a disqualification. I was so puzzled when he continued, as I immediately thought of the incident in ’90 (I think) where Mansell lost a wheel and was disqualified for reversing in the pitlane.

Hows that legal and masa’s Singapore pit lane mess is illegal, same thing just not about tyres, they arent allowed to pushed or wheeled back unless they chaange the rule since 2008. Remember Masa’s pit crew went to im and did work on the car where he stoped as he wasnt allowed t be pushed back per rules. Double standard perhaps as always.

Of course he continued without disqualification. He didn’t reverse the car, so there’s no problem there. He didn’t leave the pit lane, so the team were able to retrieve the car. It’s been that way for donkey’s years. No confusion required…

I would have thought anything that increases safety is a step forward and the ever increasing pressure on the pit crews to stop fighting for the fastest time a good idea,shame it will detract from the millions who watch on the box

I know the teams are super, super competitive and the pit crew tries to operate at maximum efficiency, but in a 1½ – 2 hour race would it really hurt that much to take an extra half a second to make sure that all the bits are attached?

They were fined 30K which is similar to all other times a wheel was not properly attached to an F1 car. I think in future there should be a bigger penalty but that should be decided before any future incidents.

The main problem is that everyone is trying to get things done as fast as they can, and with that comes bigger pressure on team personnel to get the job done….hence bigger risks.

Perhaps not the best solution but what about imposing a minimum pit stop time of no less than 3 secs? That’s more than enough time to get all 4 wheels safely on…reduces the pressure somewhat and therefore the risks as well.

By the way, if all or most teams are able to pit in a similar amount of time then it would reduce any advantage of ‘overtaking in the pit lane’ and leave the actual overtaking and racing out on the tracks. Overtaking should be done by the drivers, not the guys changing the wheels.

Rather than impose minimum times for pitstops or other ineffective measures, there should be massive, huge, backbreaking fines and points losses and civil liability imposed on teams guilty of such gross negligence as sending a car out of the box w/o a wheel attached. anyone w/ any understanding of the science of organizational behavior knows that would be a much more effective deterrent, in a competitive environment, than the half-measuress and knee-jerks discussed and implemented this week…

Are you referring to the car prep mechanics or the pit crew? The same crew changes Webber’s and Vettel’s wheels. Do you see them shuttling in a separate crew for Webber? Have you ever seen a stacked pit stop?

If you’re referring to the garage mechanics (who are also the pit crew) I certainly can’t agree that there is a ‘second string’. These guys are dedicated, professional, work very long hours, wouldn’t screw one of the drivers, and are proud of their work. There is no such thing as ‘second string’ mechanics in F1.

“And on Thursday, the BBC reported that rights holder FOM has told broadcasters that their personnel, including pit lane reporters and camera crews, will not be allowed in the pit lane during any session on “safety” grounds. Written journalists and photographers will still be permitted.”

What utter rubbish!

James you know people in the BBC please tell them to go to official sources for the news, not Bernie’s press office. The FIA make the rules, they said this the day before Benson’s piece.

“Following a pit lane incident at last weekend’s German Grand Prix, the FIA has decided to take steps to increase F1 safety and is to institute an immediate ban on anyone other than event marshals and team personnel being present in pit lane during races and grand prix qualifying sessions. Access for approved media will be confined to the pit wall.http://www.fia.com/fia-reinforces-f1-safety

So the danger is not the camera, but the need to focus on the speaker is the risc, cameraman standing with back to the action?

Cameras can be real small and it should be possible to display the camerascreen information in the visor of a helmet. So the cameraman can still see a possible danger.

Each movie camera can do photos, and each photo camera movies.
Shouldn’t there be a meeting with cameramen, photographers, FIA, camera companies to discuss a setup for a camera which minimizes risc? Then do a license or something like this for what will be allowed in the pitlane.

Has anyone with influence yet proposed that one could enforce a minimum time period that a car must be stationary in any pitstop? Say 10 seconds.

This would have the following pros and cons:

Pros:

1. No rush, so unlikely any wheel would not be properly seated. Speed leads to mistakes.
2. Removes the possibility that an ultra fast pitstop allows a car to overtake another in the pits. Leave the overtaking on the track. Some will see this as a con.
3. A car that requires a front wing change will be penalised less. Especially important when the break was some other driver’s fault. Only valid if the pitstop is in the tyre change window.
4. Gives team more time to make other changes properly, e.g. wing adjustments, change steering wheel etc. Leads to fewer retirements, and better racing since cars wing can be adjusted throughout the race to take less fuel weight into account.
5. Cheaper, since fewer personel could do the same work as before.
6. Removes the conspiracy theory that some teams favour one driver over the other.

Cons:
1. Some will say that pitstops should be competitive, and add to the spectacle.

The FIA seem to be trying to show some attempt at making it safer, but what if it was another team member who had been collected by the wheel, would that have been ok? No, didn’t think so…. Why not reduce the amount of people who can be used during a pitstop and give a minimum time of say 6 secs, that way instead of the mob that descends upon the car at every pitstop there are less people so the lollipop man might see the wheelman’s hand signals as well as any other signals the equipment might give him. This would affect every team to the same degree.
It won’t stop accidents totally but if teams know that they have 6 secs minimum to do a pitstop they have a far greater time to ensure everything is done correctly. I mean wow a whole 6 secs to change wheels, that’s a lifetime isn’t it!

I know of more than a few people, Including FOM cameramen who work in the pits who are unhappy about the new pit restrictions.

Seen lots of comments about using drones & wire-cams.
I know that FOM have tested remote drone’s but I believe there are restrictions to where these cameras can be used & thats why there not widely used in MotorSport coverage.
The problem with Wire-Cam’s in the pits is that you can only put them where you can fit the equipment. You need 2 cranes at either end of the cable & if there’s nowhere to put them at either end of the pit lane then you can’t use them.
Same with rail-cam’s, If there’s nowhere to mount them securely on the pit buildings then you can’t use those either.

Halmet-cam’s on team members & other wireless cameras on pit equipment is possible but you could not have that many because your limited on how much bandwidth can be put through the RF systems.
This is the same reason only 9 in-car cameras can be active at any single time, Thats the max you can get through the system before you start losing both picture & signal quality.

The reason FOM still used manned cameras in the pit lane is because thats what gets you the best shots, Other may get more interesting shots but they will never be as good as someone down on the ground holding a camera & thats why thats still what you see 99% of the time.

To add, The problem with the new restrictions is that were now going to have less information available from the pit lane.
In practice were no longer going to be able to see shots of new upgrades & people like Ted Kravitz & Gary Anderson are not going to be able to show or tell us about whats going on down there & thats going to see a drop in quality of the practice broadcast which is where we always got told & shown those sort of things.

If a car has damage & its not on the pit-wall side, Were not going to get any decent shots of it so again thats a negative for the coverage.

I have read many stupid comments in the past, but I astounded by such a load of people who haven’t have the slightest idea of what they are talking about, yet make judgemental comments of what has become an art form in F1.
The length of a pit stop does matter a lot actually. And obviously one guy is not able to see and judge correctly what 19 other guys are doing in just mere 2 seconds. Hence the teams came up with an automated system that displays to the front jack guy if the corners are ready or not. He just looks at those lights and when they are all there he releases the car, which means the back guy drops it as well and the driver goes.
Changing the gun design to not trigger the ready signal by accident, makes a lot of sense to me. One as explaination of what happened and as the correct answer for going into the future.

This is becoming scary… Just like the tire fiasco at Silverstone, the teams will go to any length possible to save time. Everyone “says” safety is their top priority, but it really isn’t – that sub 2-second pit stop is really the top priority…